Most cellular processes are part of specific molecular pathways. A deep knowledge of each step of these pathways is important to tackle some of the key open questions within the life sciences and fight diseases.

Therapeutic antibody drugs have recently experienced explosive growth due in large part to the fact that immunotherapies stimulate the immune system to attack cancer cells. Within oncology research alone, more than 20 therapeutic antibody drugs received FDA approval for new treatments or indications during 2015 to 2018. Additionally, more than 300 therapeutic antibody drugs are in ongoing clinical trials.

Breathtaking progress in life sciences has brought us innovations such as high-throughput and individually affordable genomic sequencing as well as next-generation flow cytometry that can phenotype dissociated cells for their expression of dozens of markers simultaneously.

In part I we examined the evolution of outsourcing in drug discovery. In part II we will examine with deeper focus the specific reasons why it is beneficial to outsource scientific experiments. Research organizations and even individual researchers outsource for a variety of reasons, but here are just a few.

 A recent white paper was released that traces the trajectory over the last ten years of 120 independent for-profit startups in the field of research workflows and scholarly communication. The author, Yvonne Campfens, presented the report at the Academic Publishing in Europe (APE) Conference held January 15-16, 2019 in Berlin.